Customizable ordering of search results and predictive query generation

ABSTRACT

In a computerized search system, a document corpus is searched according to a query and results of the search are presentable as an ordered search result set comprising one or more search hits, a search hit being a document of the document corpus or reference thereto. Based on content of the search result set, a number of suggested queries and/or parameter options are presented to a querier, thereby allowing the querier to select a suggested query and/or provide values for the parameters and those selections can be used to reorder the hits of the search result set. The particular suggested queries and/or parameters presented depend on the page elements of the search result set&#39;s documents and their categorization. The categorization might be done using concept networks.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/034,982 filed Feb. 25, 2011, which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/244,261, filed Oct. 5, 2005, which arehereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to searching a document corpus fordocuments, and more particularly relates to methods and apparatus forcustomized ordering of a document corpus search according tocategorization of page elements of the search result set, possibly usinguser selection of query categories for further refinement.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In a typical search system, a user using a client system issues a searchquery to search a document corpus and receives a set of search resultsvia the client system. The search query may be issued from the clientsystem to a search engine that is configured to search the documentcorpus, or an index thereof, for content that is relevant to the searchquery. The search engine may send a summary of the identified content inthe form of a set of search results to the client system. The searchresults might include titles, abstracts, and/or links for the identifiedpieces of content. The search query and search results may be routedbetween the client system and the search engine over one or morenetworks, and by one or more servers coupled to the network. In manycases, the search results comprise many more hits than the querier cancontemplate, so only the first few hits might be examined. Therefore,ordering search results is important as users perceive quality of searchoften by which hits are ordered first.

The network might be a local network, a global internetwork of networks,or a combination of networks. Common local networks in use today includelocal area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), virtual LANs(VLANs) and the like. One common global internetwork of networks in usetoday is referred to as the Internet, wherein nodes of the network sendthe search query to other nodes that might respond with the searchresults relevant to the search query. One protocol usable for networksthat include search systems is the Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP),wherein an HTTP client, such as a browser program operating on theclient system, issues a query for search results referenced by a UniformResource Locator (URL), and an HTTP server responds to the query bysending search results specified by the URL. Of course, while this is avery common example, the issuance of a query and the sending of a set ofsearch results relevant to the query are not so limited.

For example, networks other than the Internet might be used, such as atoken ring, a WAP (wireless application protocol) network, an overlaynetwork, a point-to-point network, proprietary networks, etc. Moreover,protocols other than HTTP might be used to request and transport searchresults, such as SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), FTP (FileTransfer Protocol), HTTPS (hypertext transfer protocol secure), etc.Further, content might be specified by other than URLs. It should beunderstood that references to the Internet can be substituted withreferences to variations of the basic concept of the Internet (e.g.,intranets, virtual private networks, enclosed TCP/IP networks, etc.), aswell as other forms of networks. It should also be understood that theoperations might occur entirely within one computer or one collection ofcomputers, thus obviating the need for a network.

Requested search results that are relevant to a query could be in manyforms. For example, some search results might include text, images,video, audio, animation, program code, data structures, etc. The searchresults may be formatted according to the Hypertext Markup Language(HTML), the Extensible Markup Language (XML), the Standard GeneralizedMarkup Language (SGML) or other language in use at the time.

HTML is a common format used for pages and other content that aresupplied from an HTTP server. HTML-formatted content might include linksto other HTML content and a collection of content that references othercontent might be thought of as a document web, hence the name “WorldWide Web” or “WWW” given to one example of a collection ofHTML-formatted content. As that is a well-known construct, it is used inmany examples herein, but it should be understood that unless otherwisespecified, the concepts described by these examples are not limited tothe WWW, HTML, HTTP, the Internet, etc.

As described briefly above, a set of search results may includeabstracts that identify documents that are relevant to a search query.The search results, however, may include a number of results that arenot what the user had in mind when formulating a query (e.g., whenformulating a query string). To locate the results the user had in mind,the user may review a number of the results, for example, by scrollingthrough the search results, which may be displayed as a Web page on theclient system. If the search results are relatively lengthy, as iscommon, the user may become frustrated in attempting to locate theresults that the user had in mind and might end their review of thesearch results. Alternatively, the user might issue another search queryvia their client system in an attempt to locate the search results theuser had in mind.

If the query is well-understood by the search system and is unambiguous,it may be that an ordered presentation of the search results willpresent the most interesting (to that querier) documents first and lessinteresting documents later. Ordering can be important, as searchresults are often numerous enough that not all of the deemed relevantdocuments are presented in an initial display. The querier might scrollor page down to see more results, but is not likely to be interested inthe results if it requires much scrolling/paging to find documents ofinterest.

What is needed is an improved search apparatus and method for generatingsearch results and ordering them for user presentation, taking intoaccount the nature of the query.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In a computerized search system, a document corpus is searched accordingto a query and results of the search are presentable as an orderedsearch result set comprising one or more search hits, a search hit beinga document of the document corpus or reference thereto. Based on contentof the search result set, a number of suggested queries and/or parameteroptions are presented to a querier, thereby allowing the querier toselect a suggested query and/or provide values for the parameters andthose selections can be used to reorder the hits of the search resultset. The particular suggested queries might depend on the categorizationof the query and user selection of a category for the query, wherein thesuggested queries are common queries for such categories. The particularparameters presented might depend on the categorization of the querytaking into account similar factors and/or the page elements of thesearch result set's documents. The categorization might be done usingconcept networks.

According to a specific embodiment, the querier is a human. According toanother specific embodiment, the querier is a computer.

Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent in viewof the following detailed description and accompanying figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an information retrieval and communicationnetwork that includes a client system according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 2 is an illustration of the information retrieval and communicationnetwork shown in further detail according to one embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of the information retrieval and communicationnetwork shown in further detail including interaction of a client systemand a search engine.

FIG. 4 is an illustration of a browser window that includes a searchpage configured to receive present parameter-based sliders and receiveuser values for those parameters.

DESCRIPTION OF SELECT EMBODIMENTS

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example,not limitation. It is to be understood that the invention is of broadutility and may be used in many different contexts.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an information retrieval and communicationnetwork 10 including a client system 20 according to an embodiment ofthe present invention. In communication network 10, client system 20 iscoupled through a network 30, such as the Internet and/or an intranet(e.g., a LAN or a WAN), to any number of server systems 40 ₁ to 40 _(N).As will be described herein, client system 20 is configured tocommunicate with any of server systems 40 ₁-40 _(N), for example, torequest, access, receive, retrieve, and/or display a set of searchresults. As referred to herein a set includes one or more elements.

Several elements in the system shown in FIG. 1 include conventional,well-known elements that need not be explained in detail here. Forexample, client system 20 might include a desktop personal computer,workstation, laptop, PDA (personal digital assistant), cell phone, anywireless application protocol (WAP) enabled device or any othercomputing device capable of interfacing directly or indirectly to theInternet. Client system 20 typically runs a browser program, such asMicrosoft's Internet Explorer™ browser, Netscape Navigator™ browser,Mozilla™ browser, Opera™ browser, a WAP-enabled browser in the case of acell phone, a PDA or other wireless device, allowing a user of clientsystem 20 to access, process and view search results available to itfrom server systems 40 ₁-40 _(N) over network 30. Client system 20 mightalso include one or more user interface devices 22, such as a keyboard,a mouse, a roller ball, a touch screen, a pen or the like, forinteracting with a graphical user interface (GUI) provided by thebrowser on a display (e.g., monitor screen, LCD display, etc.), inconjunction with pages, forms, and other information provided by serversystems 40 ₁-40 _(N).

The present invention is suitable for use with the Internet, whichrefers to a specific global internetwork of networks. However, it shouldbe understood that other networks can be used instead of or in additionto the Internet, such as an intranet, an extranet, a virtual privatenetwork (VPN), a virtual LAN (VLAN), a non-TCP/IP based network, any LANor WAN or the like.

According to one embodiment, client system 20 and system servers 40 ₁-40_(N) and their respective components are operator configurable using anapplication including computer code run using one or more centralprocessing units, such as those manufactured by Intel, AMD or the like.Computer code for operating and configuring client system 20 tocommunicate, process, and display search results relevant to a query ispreferably downloaded and stored on a hard disk, but the entire programcode, or portions thereof, may also be stored on any other volatile ornon-volatile memory medium or device as is well known, such as a ROM orRAM, or provided on any media capable of storing program code, such as acompact disk (CD) medium, a digital versatile disk (DVD) medium, afloppy disk, and the like. Additionally, the entire program code, orportions thereof, may be transmitted and downloaded from a softwaresource, e.g., from one of server systems 40 ₁-40 _(N) to client system20 over network 30 using a communication medium and protocols (e.g.,TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, Ethernet, or other conventional media andprotocols). As referred to herein, a server system may include a singleserver computer or number of server computers configured to operate as aserver system.

It should be appreciated that computer code for implementing aspects ofthe present invention can be C, C++, HTML, XML, Java, JavaScript, etc.code, or any other suitable scripting language (e.g., VBScript), or anyother suitable programming language that can be executed on clientsystem 20 and/or servers 40 ₁-40 _(N) or compiled to execute on clientsystem 20 and/or servers 40 ₁ to 40 _(N). In some embodiments, no codeis downloaded to client system 20, and needed code is executed by aserver, or code already present at client system 20 is executed.

FIG. 2 illustrates a search system 10 in greater detail. As shown there,search clients 104 are connected with content servers 102 that servecontent 106 from a corpus 105. For example, search clients 104 might becomputers with web browsers, content servers 102 might be web serversand content 106 might be repositories of web pages. Search clients 104can also connect to a search engine 106 to identify content of interest.In an example operation, a search client 104 issues a search query tosearch engine 106, which returns search results to the search client andparameters usable for modifying presentation of the search results atthe client system. Where the search results references content, the userof search client 104 can then access that content indexed by the searchengine, by making a request to a relevant content server 102 that willreturn the content in response to the request.

Prior to searches being done, an indexer/crawler 110 would create adocument index 112 for the corpus 105 to allow for searching over thecontent for relevant documents. Search engine 106 is coupled to thisdocument index 112. Search engine 106 is also coupled to storage for aquery log 116 and storage for user profiles 119 containing userpreferences, demographics and possibly user query histories.

In operation, possibly millions of search clients send queries to searchengine 106, which consults document index 112 and returns search resultsto the search clients. Search engine 106 also logs the queries in querylog 116. The search results could be such that each of the hits refersback to search engine 106 or other server that tracks which searchengine hits are selected, or the search results could point directly tothe appropriate content server. Either way, the searcher typicallyresponds to search results by following the links or references to oneor more of the search hits. As explained below, additional presentationbeyond just listing of results can be provided, such as aresults-specific set of parameters to adjust and/or predictive queriesfor refining results.

Client System

According to one embodiment, a client application executing on a clientsystem includes instructions for controlling the client system and itscomponents to communicate with a server system to process and displaydata content received therefrom. The client application can betransmitted and downloaded to the client system from a software sourcesuch as a remote server system, although the client application can beprovided on any software storage medium such as a floppy disk, CD, DVD,etc.

Additionally, the client application module includes various softwaremodules for processing data and media content, a user interface forrendering data and media content in text and data frames and activewindows, e.g., browser windows and dialog boxes, and an applicationinterface for interfacing and communicating with various applicationsexecuting on the client. Examples of various applications executing onthe client system invention include various e-mail applications, instantmessaging (IM) applications, browser applications, document managementapplications and others. Further, the interface may include a browser,such as a default browser configured on the client system or a differentbrowser.

In some embodiments, the client application provides features of auniversal search interface. In some embodiments, separate windows areprovided for separate display components or combines windows can beprovided. For example, one window might provide ordered search resultswith scrolling capability, while another window provides sliders orother user interface devices to allow a user to vary weights ofparameters specific to categorization of the documents that are listed.

Search Server System

Search engine 106 in one embodiment references various page indexesstored in document index 112 that are populated with, e.g., pages, linksto pages, data representing the content of indexed pages, etc. Pageindexes may be generated by various collection technologies includingautomatic web crawlers, spiders, etc., as well as manual orsemi-automatic classification algorithms and interfaces for classifyingand ranking web pages within a hierarchical structure.

Search engine 106 may be configured with search related algorithms forprocessing and ranking web pages relative to a given query (e.g., basedon a combination of logical relevance, as measured by patterns ofoccurrence of the search terms in the query; context identifiers; pagesponsorship; etc.).

It will be appreciated that the search system described herein isillustrative and that variations and modifications are possible. Thecontent servers and search engine may be part of a single organization,e.g., a distributed server system such as that provided to users byYahoo! Inc., or they may be part of disparate organizations. Eachassociated database system may include multiple servers and associateddatabase systems, and although shown as a single block, may begeographically distributed. For example, all servers of a search enginesystem may be located in close proximity to one another (e.g., in aserver farm located in a single building or campus), or they may bedistributed at locations remote from one another (e.g., one or moreservers located in city A and one or more servers located in city B).Thus, as used herein, a “server” typically includes one or morelogically and/or physically connected servers distributed locally oracross one or more geographic locations; the terms “server” and “serversystem” are used interchangeably.

The search system may be configured with one or more page indexes andalgorithms for accessing the page index or indices and providing searchresults to users in response to search queries received from clientsystems. The search server system might generate the page indexesitself, receive page indexes from another source (e.g., a separateserver system), or receive page indexes from another source and performfurther processing thereof (e.g., addition or updating of the contextidentifiers).

In addition to returning search results, the search engine returnsparameter settings. For example, if the search engine determines thatthe search results are about a particular topic, the search engine mightreturn sliders specific to that topic to allow the user to refine thesearch at the client system. Alternatively, the parameter informationmight come from a separate system.

Topic Database Generator

In one embodiment, a topic database generator 126 populates a topicdatabase 124 from a review of document index 112 and/or document corpus105. The content of topic database 124 might be stored coincidentallywith storage for document index 112 such that the topics and pageelements for a given index page can be retrieved together. For example,topic database generator 126 might scan each document as it is indexedto identify page elements corresponding to topical features. Asexamples, topic database generator 126 might detect that a page containscontent that is about a book and might also detect the title of thebook, or might detect that a page contains content that is about amovie, sports, news or other topics commonly on the mind of usersperforming searches.

For each type of content, the topic database generator might determine,for each type of content, which queries are most appropriate and whichparameters might be the most appropriate for user adjustments. If thecontent is about a particular consumer product, the parameters for useradjustment might be the user's preferred weights for purchaseinformation, reviews, pictures, etc., while if the content is about aparticular sports team, the parameters for user adjustment might beweights for team information, ticket sales, etc.

The topic database generator might also take into account time of day,location, etc. and other data points that might reflect on what theuser's context is. For example, if the search results relate to moviesand the user device is a cell phone, the interest might be more ondirections to local theaters and ticket purchases, whereas amovie-related search at a desktop might be more on reviews, viewingpreviews and show times.

The topic database generator might use concept networks, relationships,and centroids of concepts to determine which queries are the mostappropriate. Distance metrics in the concept networks might also beconsidered. For example, using a concept network, the topic databasegenerator can determine that at a current time users are interested inreviews of a particular movie.

The information provided by the topic database generator can come inseveral forms. In one form, its output is in the form of suggestedqueries, wherein documents in the search results have been preprocessedto identify relevant page elements, which can then be associated withconcepts in a concept network. Knowing the concepts, the document can becategorized according to the categorization of the concepts. Knowing thecategorization, a set of suggested queries and/or parameters can beretrieved from the topic database such that documents are associatedwith suggested queries and parameters, which can then be provided to theend user with the search results. Alternatively, the topic of the queryis found by categorization.

As an example, a client system might present the user with a listing ofsearch result hits, ordered in a first order along with suggestedqueries and a user interface for user input of values for the parametersspecific to those search results. The user can then select one of thesearch result hits, select one of the suggested queries to initiate anew search, or modify values for the parameters to cause a reordering ofthe search result hits. Alternatively, the user is presented with a listof categories for the current query and upon selecting a category, theuser is presented with a set of suggested queries for the selectedcategory. The suggested queries might be predicted from prior actionswith such queries.

The client system might provide feedback to the search engine toindicate which of the options to user took.

While many variations of user interface elements are possible, oneexample used herein is that of sliders, wherein a slider represents aweighting of a parameters and the parameter is associated with asubconcept for a concept found in the search results. Thus, where aconcept is identified in search results, concept-specific parameterswould be presented, allowing the user to weight different subconceptsdifferently and have the client user interface modify search order ofsearch results. In some cases, where practical, the reordering wouldoccur at the server side. The sliders would each have titles so the userknew what subconcepts were being weighted. The particular subconceptscould be based on a concept network, rather than having a universal setof parameters or based on some manual assignment.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of the information retrieval and communicationnetwork shown in further detail including interaction of a client system200 and a search engine 202. As shown, client system 200 comprises aprocessor 208 for handling operations, a display 210 and I/O 212 foruser interface, a local store 214 for storing search results locally (ifthis option is used and search results are not stored and accessedserver-side), sort logic 216 and storage for configuration data 218.

In a typical operation, processor 208 accepts user input to formulate asearch query 220. One example of a formulation is to present the userwith a web page having a place to enter a search query string, but othertechniques might be used as well. Processor 208 then transmits searchquery 220 as a record of data to search engine 202, which processes thesearch query (and possibly other data, such as user context and thelike) to arrive at search results 222, which typically comprise anordered set of search hits, each deemed responsive to the query andpossibly comprising a plurality of search hits numbering more than theuser can be expected to use or review. The search results 222 areconveyed to client system 200, so that processor 208 can display aportion of them and store them in local store 214. Search engine 202might also convey slider parameters 224 or other parameters that aredependent on the search results or the search query. Search engine 202might also convey suggested queries that are dependent upon the searchresults.

The suggested queries might be selected as the more common tasks usersperform with pages related to a particular category of the queries. Forexample, consider the query of a famous fictional character “Joe Smith”that happens to be the subject of several books and movies. The systemfirst categorizes the query and determines that this query fits into thecategories “books” and “movies”. The system presents the user with aninterface to select one of the determined queries. If the user chooses“books”, the system will retrieve the most common tasks users do withinthis category and give the user suggestions that have embedded queries.For example, if the user selects “books”, the system might suggestqueries with labels such as “Book Reviews for Joe Smith” (for which theinternal query can be <“Joe Smith” AND book AND (reviews OR review OR“critic review” OR “user review”)>), “Get EBooks for Joe Smith” (forwhich the internal query can be <“Joe Smith” AND book AND (ebook ORebooks OR “download book”)>), whereas if the user selected the “movies”category, the suggested queries might include <“Joe Smith” AND (“movieshow times” OR “movie details”>. Thus, the system determines, from auser query, suitable categories and suggests predictive queries thatdepend on which of the determined categories the user selects.

Processor 208 uses sort logic 216, which might be in the form of programinstructions such as Javascript™ or Java′ instructions downloaded fromsearch engine 202. Sort logic 216 might include user interface elementsthat processor 208 would present to the user to allow the user to inputdesired values for the conveyed parameters and/or select a suggestedquery. Slider parameters 224 are stored into storage for configurationdata 218 and can be accessed from there by processor 208.

In a specific example for illustrative purposes, search query 220comprises the string “Tell me about Lorem Ipsum”, search results 222comprises search hits deemed related to the concepts that search engine202 identifies in search query 220 and, as explained above, parameters224 (and suggested queries, if used) are determined by search engine 202from the identified concepts, so that they are relevant to the deemedintent of the user doing the search. For example, a concept networkmight show a strong link between the concepts “Lorem Ipsum” and “movie”,leading to the conclusion that the user's intent is to find outinformation about a movie titled “Lorem Ipsum”. Furthermore, using trendanalysis, the search engine might also detect that because interest isrising quickly, this must be a newly released movie, so the user mightbe interested in a trailer, buying tickets, etc. Alternatively, if thesearch engine determines that this is not a newly released movie, itmight infer that the user is interested in buying a copy of the moviefor home viewing, such as a video or DVD, or that the user is interestedin background of the movie. Thus, even the likely category the userwould select can be guessed by the system, in which case the systemwould proceed to show the predicted queries for the guessed category.

Whatever search engine 202 infers, it can generate relevant subconceptsfor presentation to the user, such as “Buying this Movie”, “Viewing aPreview”, “Actor List”, etc. Processor 208 can present the subconceptsto the user and get from the user weights for subconcepts, as parametervalues. These parameter values can then be used by sort logic 216 toreorder the search results stored in local store 214 and processor 208can redisplay the search results in a different order. Thus, if the userheavily weights “Viewing a Preview”, sort logic 216 might move hits upin the order that relate to the subconcept of “movie previews” and alsorelate to the concept of “movie” and the subconcept “Lorem Ipsum, theMovie”.

FIG. 4 is an illustration of a browser window 400 that includes a searchpage 405 configured to receive present parameter-based sliders andreceive user values for those parameters. Search page 405 is shown forexemplary purposes and may be alternatively configured as will bereadily understood by those of skill in the art. Therefore, theexemplary embodiment should not be viewed as limiting the invention asspecified by the claims. The search page might be a Yahoo! search pageor other search page, and might be formatted as an HTML page, an XMLpage or the like. The search page might be served to the client systemby the HTTP server, which might be a Yahoo! property server or the like.

The search page may include a field window 410 that is configured toreceive query information 415 in the form of a query string (e.g.,text), image data (e.g., graphical images, such as video or the like),audio data, a link that points to a page (such as a Web page on the Web)or the like. The query string might be entered in the field window by auser operating the client system. For example, a user might enter thequery string “movies Lorem Ipsum” in field window 410 as shown in FIG. 4or may enter any other query string the user desires information for.

According to one embodiment, search page 405 includes a slider panel 420that allows a user to adjust sliders that correspond to weights forsubconcepts deemed relevant to this search by the search engine. Thenames of the parameters shown in FIG. 4 are shown for exemplarypurposes. Sort logic 216 is configured to use the user-suppliedparameter values to reorder search results.

Other parameter values, shown or unshown, might include informationextracted from a user query history on the client system, or storedserver-side in a user profile database or the like. The user queryhistory may include query information of one or more user queries issuedby the user via his or her client system. The user query history mayinclude the query string of each query issued by the user. The userquery history may be retrieved by the search engine analysis todetermine whether use the user query history to affect the search. Theuser query history may be accumulated by one or more of the searchfilter, the browser program, the filter records editor, one or more ofservers 40 ₁ to 40 _(N), a dedicated program configured to operate onthe client system, or the like.

In reordering search hits, some hits might be deleted or just orderedlower in the order.

It is to be understood that the examples and embodiments described aboveare for illustrative purposes only and that various modifications orchanges in light thereof will be suggested to persons skilled in the artand are to be included within the spirit and purview of this applicationand scope of the appended claims. For example, sorting and reorderingmethods described herein might be combined with filtering techniques orother techniques. Therefore, the above description should not be takenas limiting the scope of the invention as defined by the claims.

What is claimed:
 1. A method, implemented on a machine having at leastone processor, storage, and a communication platform connected to anetwork for presenting a search result, comprising: receiving, from auser device, a search term; determining search results based on thesearch term, wherein each search result is associated with a topic;determining a plurality of parameters and one or more query suggestionsbased on the topics associated with the search results, wherein eachparameter from the plurality of parameters is defined by a predeterminedrange of numerical values, and each query suggestion is a word;providing the plurality of parameters and one or more query suggestionsto the user device; receiving, from the user device, a user-selectedoption from the one or more query suggestions; receiving, from the userdevice, a user-selected value from the range of values for eachparameter from the plurality of parameters; and reordering the searchresults using the user-selected option and the user-selected valuescomprising listing relevant search results ahead of less relevant searchresults; and wherein the query suggestions are based on categorizationof the search term and on trend analysis of tasks previously performedby one or more other users at web pales related to the categorization.2. The method of claim 1, wherein the reordering further comprisesdeleting one or more of the search results.
 3. The method of claim 1,further comprising: indexing each document of a corpus; scanning theeach document as it is indexed to identify page elements.
 4. The methodof claim 3, wherein the query suggestions and the plurality ofparameters are based on the page elements present in documents, whichare comprised in the search results, and on categorization of thedocuments.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of parametersare further determined based on a type of content associated with eachof the search results.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the pluralityof parameters are further determined based on context associated witheach of the search results, the context including a time of day andlocation of the user device.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein theplurality of parameters are further determined based on sub-concepts ofconcepts identified from the search results.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein the plurality of parameters are further determined based oninformation extracted from the user's query history.
 9. A systemcomprising a server coupled to a user device over a communicationnetwork, the server comprising a search engine operable therewith atleast to: receive, from a user device, a search term; determine searchresults based on the search term, wherein each search result isassociated with a topic; determine a plurality of parameters and one ormore query suggestions based on the topics associated with the searchresults, wherein each parameter from the plurality of parameters isdefined by a predetermined range of numerical values, and each querysuggestion is a word; provide the plurality of parameters and one ormore query suggestions to the user device; receive, from the userdevice, a user-selected from the one or more query suggestions; receive,from the user device, a user-selected value from the range of values foreach parameter from the plurality of parameters; and reorder the searchresults using the user-selected option and the user-selected valuescomprising listing relevant search results ahead of less relevant searchresults; and wherein the query suggestions are based on categorizationof the search term and on trend analysis of tasks previously performedby one or more other users at web pages related to the categorization.10. The system of claim 9, wherein the reordering further comprisesdeleting one or more of the search results.
 11. The system of claim 9,wherein the search engine is further operable to: index each document ofa corpus; scan the each document as it is indexed to identify pageelements.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the query suggestions andthe plurality of parameters are based on the page elements present indocuments, which are comprised in the search results, and oncategorization of the documents.
 13. The system of claim 9, wherein theplurality of parameters are further determined based on a type ofcontent associated with each of the search results.
 14. The system ofclaim 9, wherein the plurality of parameters are further determinedbased on context associated with each of the search results, the contextincluding a time of day and location of the user device.
 15. The systemof claim 9, wherein the plurality of parameters are further determinedbased on sub-concepts of concepts identified from the search results.16. The system of claim 9, wherein the plurality of parameters arefurther determined based on information extracted from the user's queryhistory.